media release

Samantha Everton - 2 Girls Building Launch

Survey Exhibition, Abbotsford Melbourne

February 28 2015

An award winning Melbourne photographer, a developer with a vision to create a unique statement in inner-city living and an internationally recognised architectural practice that brought a bold and beautiful design to life is a great combination. The end result is the 2 Girls Building.

This story begins with Melbourne photographer Samantha Everton completing a much-heralded photographic series in 2009 titled Vintage Dolls. It was this photographic exhibition that stuck in the mind of Peter Cahill director of Domain Hill Property Group, a developer with a simple philosophy of developing property that people will be proud to own.

Peter Cahill engaged architects KUD Architects and its principal Billy Kavellaris to oversee a project with a difference. Billy took Peter's brief to design something special and developed a fusion of art and architecture in a modern contemporary setting.

The story of how the creative talents of these three people came together to create the 2 Girls Building can be seen in its bold and beautiful design. It has a façade that embraces an image titled Masquerade from Samantha's Vintage Dolls series featuring 2 girls in a setting synonymous with inner-city traditional domestic spaces. The image, chosen by Billy Kavellaris and Samantha Everton, was the perfect fit for the building.

Philosophically the 2 Girls Building is not about just sticking a giant photo to the facade of the building. Instead the artwork forms part of a living skin on the building form, which is embossed into concrete and the image on the glass possessing various translucencies. The components of the composition merge to create a third dimension to the photography with the various elements of the photograph such as the concrete wallpaper and the three dimensional lamp in the Masquerade photo becomes a real three-storey tall lamp structure that projects out from the facade with the light in the lampshade illuminating at night.

Inside, the façade's artwork is reproduced again in the building's foyer and then a whole new artworld unfolds, inviting people to explore the corridors. In fact the entire 2 Girls Building is a work of art, encouraged by generous 2.5 meter wide corridors to give the impression you are wondering inside an art gallery on the way to your apartment or rooftop loft. The walls of the corridors will be lined with thoughtfully selected imagery from contemporary photographic artists chosen as part of a competition run by Peter Cahill and RMIT BA Photography department. Another feature will be the light wells that will have sculptured art installations displayed within.

Photographer Samantha Everton is thrilled with the end result of the collaboration.
"This is such an exciting concept, which I believe is certainly unique to Australia. The ability to marry an image so well into a real building, interacting with its features and the people who will live there really brings it to life. Every artist ultimately creates their artwork for people to enjoy and this is a wonderful opportunity to share my work with a whole new audience,'' she said.

Architect Billy Kavellaris from KUD Architects says the building will be "a polemic that fuses art, photography and architecture. The project explores the relationship between the three disciplines and blurs their respective boundaries resulting in one craft overlapping and appropriating the other characteristics in the form of a new medium.''

Developer Peter Cahill from Domain Hill Property Group believes the combination of the unparalleled design of the 2 Girls Building, its location in Abbotsford and the projects' overwhelming commercial success makes it special in Melbourne.

Anthea Polson Art have proudly represented Samantha Everton since 2009 and have held four successful solo exhibitions of her work in that time.

On Saturday February 28 Anthea Polson Art, in conjunction with Peter Cahill of Domain Hill Property Group and KUD Architects, will be holding a Survey exhibition of Samantha Everton's work in the downstairs commercial area during the official launch of the 2 Girls Building. We will be hosting an opening reception from 6pm onwards which will be in conjunction with the display and announcement of the winners of the competition run by RMIT BA photography department for students work to be permanently displayed in the corridors of the buildings residential area.